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NASCAR Hall of Fame class of 2017 highlights: Rick Hendrick

Editor’s Note: As we lead up to the 2017 NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony this Friday, we will take a look at each of the five inductees and their contributions to NASCAR.

Car owner Rick Hendrick founded his race organization in 1984 by fielding a single car that was driven by Geoffrey Bodine in NASCAR's top series.

Since then, Hendrick Motorsports has gone on to accumulate a record 12 championships in the NASCAR Premier Series and a total of 299 wins across NASCAR's three national touring series.

Check out some of the defining moments from Hendrick's Hall of Fame career:

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First wins

Bodine scored the first three wins for the car owner in '84, including this one that he celebrated after going to Victory Lane in Nashville, Tennessee. Hendrick credits Bodine's first win at Martinsville early that season for allowing him to continue operating the company that was at first called "All-Star Racing."

At the time, the company had five full-time employees and operated out of 5,000-square feet of workspace.

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Shooting star

Tim Richmond drove for Hendrick all too briefly, scoring a total of nine wins in 37 starts across just one full season and eight races of another. Richmond's career was cut short when he contracted AIDS and died from it shortly thereafter.

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Power trio

Driver Jeff Gordon (left) owns four of Hendrick's championships, with three of them coming with Ray Evernham (far right) as his crew chief. Gordon and Evernham won a total of 47 races between 1992-99. Gordon won titles in 1995, 1997 and 1998 with Evernham, and in 2001 with Robbie Loomis as his crew chief.

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First championship

Hendrick scored his second championship as owner when driver Terry Labonte won the 1996 title.

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Proud papa

Even though his race teams have collected 12 NASCAR Premier Series championships and nearly 300 race wins across NASCAR's three national touring series, Hendrick recently admitted that perhaps his most special moment in racing came when his son, Ricky, won the inaugural Truck Series race at Kansas in 2001.

Sadly, Ricky Hendrick was one of 10 people associated with Hendrick Motorsports who died in a 2004 plane crash as they attempted to land near Martinsville, Virginia to attend a Cup race.

Eye for talent

Even though they eventually parted ways, Hendrick gave future championship driver Kyle Busch his start in Cup in 2004.

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Title team

An early photo (from L-R) of driver Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick and crew chief Chad Knaus after a victory at Charlotte. The trio would go on to celebrate a record-tying total of seven Premier Series championships, the most recent of which came in 2016.

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Dialing up Dale

Hendrick basically traded in Kyle Busch to add Dale Earnhardt Jr. to his driver stable in 2008 in one of the most highly anticipated and highly celebrated driver signings in NASCAR history. The two have since described their relationship as so close as to be like father and son.

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His better half

Hendrick with his wife Linda at a recent NASCAR Awards Ceremony.

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Winding down

Hendrick celebrates another Brickyard 400 win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Jeff Gordon, who retired as a full-time driver in the Cup Series following the 2015 season -- and after a total of 93 career wins behind the wheel of the iconic No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy. Now a FOX Sports NASCAR analyst, Gordon drove for Hendrick for nearly a quarter of a century and even came out of retirement to sub for the injured Earnhardt Jr. for eight races in 2016.

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Happy times

A jubliant Hendrick hugs Johnson after Johnson secured his seventh and latest championship by winning the 2016 EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

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Champions

Light moment

Hendrick shares a light moment with Gordon prior to a race in 2016 in which Gordon subbed for Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick had to call Gordon where he was vacationing in France and talk him into coming back to drive again.

Mutual admiration

Hendrick and fellow 2017 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Richard Childress (right) have professed great mutual admiration for each other.

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Looking up

With Johnson's seventh championship fresh in his mind and a four-driver stable capable of continuing to add to his legacy as a car owner, Hendrick can smile when looking ahead to a NASCAR future as bright as his brilliant past.

His Hendrick Motorsports company now consists of more than 500 full-time employees who work out of a complex that consists of mulitple buildings on more than 100 acres in Concord, North Carolina.